[PLOT] [Investigation] Suspicious Supplies

[Fel]

Someone has to have tampered with the supplies. The only question is... which supplies? There's a lot of storerooms here. Let's get looking for anything suspicious.

[nineofswords]

Anabella could not believe that anyone was stupid enough to poison a Weyr. But then again, she also couldn't believe that a Weyr would be stupid enough to welcome Holdless into its residents ranks, or that they would forgo the clear social order in favor of...ugh...democracy. Even if said democracy might give her a path to power, that power would not be absolute, and thus was of no good to her.

Still, if she found the source of the poisons, she'd gain notoriety, recognition, respect. Useful tools. So she started sorting through the supplies in one of the linen storerooms, hoping to find something that might be at all suspicious. Linens were something that she - as a well-bred lady - understood all too well. With her keen eye, she'd know right away if anything felt off or suspect about the clothes.

"The Weyr should not have to worry about such things," she said aloud to anyone who'd happened to have the same idea as her. "If we cannot trust our own tithes, if we need to start checking everything coming in, how are we to function?" It was truly absurd.

[Wolfkitt]

Lisask felt absolutely lost without his bonded at his side. She was among the sick but he had no such ailment. He had spent much of his time at her side but he was doing no good getting in the way of the Healers and such, so having been coaxed into leaving his Alisa's side, he moved through the caverns using his keen sense of smell to try to find something... Anything to help out. Making his way to the store rooms, he paused hearing a voice.

He moved to the door looking about to the stored supplies. He knew this room, he had found his way here multiple times trying to sort and make things nice... Much to the chagrin of those who were actually in charge of this room. But pressing his face in, his eyes whirling with anxious yellows his usually chipper voice was a bit more muted, but still with a hint of hopeful brightness. Lisask's sick too.
Lisask can help? Lisask can sort and sniff good. He looked to the person within but moved in to start to sniff about trying to focus himself and bring some purpose to distract himself.

[Dragon]

It hadn't been easy to escape Molloth. The blue was especially concerned since it was clear that people were being poisoned around the Weyr, and he'd decided in his clouded way that he could clearly protect Veryn from this amorphous threat. He'd lose the thought at some point, of course, but for now ... well, at least he'd reluctantly believed her when Veryn had told him (quite honestly) that he wouldn't be able to fit where she was going.

She kept having to tell him that. She really didn't want him getting stuck somewhere again, and the interior of the Weyr wasn't designed for fully grown dragons.

Hopefully, she could help find the source of the poison. Poking her head into a storeroom, she saw one of the weryfolk and a wher, a lovely blue. But - the contents were linens? "Do we really think we're going to find anything here?"

[FirebrandPhlox]

"We better," Raev growled as she approached the storeroom being searched. She had been waylaid by symptoms of her own poisoning for too long, and needed to do something more than sort through paperwork and sit through council discussions. After the harrowing first day, where she had suffered muscle spasms and shortness of breath, she'd been feeling frail and weak, something the sturdy woman was not used to. Though her strength had returned after a week, she still walked with her staff, just in case her muscles decided to fail her again. Rask was dutifully at her side, ready to offer support in case issues arose.

Rask help Liask sniff! The wher offered excitedly.

Raev nodded. "Let's get this organized. The whers can try to catch a scent of anything suspicious, us humans can sort through the supplies. We're going to be meticulous and make sure every bag and basket is thoroughly checked," she barked, taking command of the search. Following her own orders, she opened a container of root vegetables and began pulling each out one by one.

[Arcane]

F'nir and Elsbeth had been some of the lucky ones protected by virtue of their superior constitution, as a bronze pair. F'nir had vanquished his (humiliatingly stinky) illness in under a day. The concoction had surely been brewed to kill and perhaps to a drudge, it would have been fatal- but riders, especially bronzeriders, were made of stronger stuff. Elsbeth, subject to a stronger, more frightening attack intended for dragonkind, had suffered two days with symptoms that had F'nir fearing for his life, but he too had heroically fought off the illness, by virtue of a bronze's vitality and vigor.

And now, he needed to lend his gifts to stopping the attack, before the foul poisoners preyed on weaker souls. Like children. His child. He would be a poor father, to let the girl die mere days after he arrived.

"It was an act of war. We should be surveying the watchdragons, for any sightings of strange dragons in the sky," F'nir said confidently, as he started to search the lower caverns, "We need not fear our own tithes, merely catch the culprits and bring the fight to the enemy weyr. Prove to them our strength and win our peace through their fear."

Such had been the riders' way, since he was a boy.

High Reaches had made its share of enemies. It was a weyr that adopted strange ways and never knew when to keep quiet. Old grudges lingered, from Golre's enemies to the the Fortians whose stolen hatchlings still dwelled among the peaks. Benden, Ista, Igen, Fort...Perhaps even Semacans, who resented High Reaches dealing with their sea-dwelling serfs right under their nose...Only a dragonrider would dare so violate a weyr, but that left plenty of potential culprits.

There was another war between the weyrs coming, if they did not prove themselves too might to fell.

"I will take this stack," F'nir declared. He had not spent much time in the lower caverns since he Impressed at seventeen, but how difficult could it be to find evidence? "Keep your eyes peeled for any signs an enemy rider has been here. A fruit out of season in this climate. A lost knot in enemy colors. A scrap of fabric in a distinctive color."

The weyrfolk and wherhandlers were lucky to have him here, to lead them. How would they know what to do without a dragonrider to instruct them?

[nineofswords]

Anabella jumped slightly at hearing a voice, then looked around to find a blue wher. An...unescorted blue wher. Was this one of the feral whers Fort had had so much trouble with, or had someone just lost their bond? (Yes, he had just told her why he was there, but Anabella had a remarkable talent for not hearing what other people said.)

She made a shooing motion with her hands. "I am not your handler," she said slowly and loudly, as if speaking to someone who had trouble understanding her. "Go find them." She didn't turn her back on the unfamiliar wher, but she did try to go back to her task to make it clear that she had no interest in engaging with the creature further.

She glanced up, annoyed to hear yet another voice. At least this one was human, and a dragonrider to boot, so she let out a sigh. "If the poison is food-related, I know very little about that, and would only get in the way," she said, running her fingers through a bolt of cotton. "But I know fabrics. So if any of it was coated in some kind of poison, it will feel different, and no doubt cause some symptoms in my hands. It will not hurt to rule things out, surely?"

And another voice joined them, but this one carried authority and wherleader knots. Anabella gave a shallow bow to the other woman. "Of course, wherleader," she said deferentially. "I will continue as I was with the linens." And then a bronzerider came in as well, but a quick glance at his knots told her that he was no one of particular import. Bronze was impressive, but it was not quite so impressive as wherleader. "I doubt very much that anyone who could poison an entire Weyr without detection would be careless enough as to leave behind such an obvious clue," she remarked.

[Fel]

The search of the linens yields absolutely nothing. Annabella's hands are not afflicted with any irritation or inflammation... though she does catch a nail on one wicker basket.

The basket of root vegetables is similarly un-noteworthy. They just look like root vegetables. In fact, many of the containers seem to still be closed as they were when transported to the Weyr as part of a tithe.

[Dragon]

Veryn hadn't realized at first that there was more than linens in this storeroom. She was glad that there didn't seem to be any sign of poison on the fabrics; it was bad enough that they had to watch what they ate, and that the dragons and whers were getting sick from eating the heardbeasts, without worrying about being poisoned by touching something!

"Sorry, Wherleader," the recently graduated rider said meekly. She eyed the weyrfolk woman sideways as she tried to tell the blue wher to go away; the whers could be helpful, since they might be able to smell some trace of the poison. Turning to the blue wher, she whispered, "You and I can work together, if you want."

As for the bronzerider who was trying to take over ... well, he seemed rather ... blustery. "Ah - enemy rider?" She didn't think that sounded likely - and it seemed like she wasn't the only one.

Shaking her head, she peered at some sacks of flour that she hadn't seen at first. "It would be really easy to, I don't know, grind something in with the flour ..."

[FirebrandPhlox]

"Don't listen to him and his enemy rider nonsense," Raev growled, shooting F'nir a glare. "We don't know for sure what the source of the poison is, spreading rumors like that will only cause more panic."

She threw the root vegetables she finished sorting through back into the basket they had come from. She wasn't a cook, but they seemed to be perfectly normal plants to her untrained eye.

"Rask, Liask, either of you pick up a suspicious scent yet?" She asked the whers. Raev was uneasy, seeing Liask here without his handler present. She could appreciate the desire to help, but didn't like the idea of whers freely wandering the weyr without their handlers physically close to them in case of emergency. She didn't know Liask, and hoped a close eye and a demanding task would keep him properly in line.

Rask no smell any funny smell yet. Her own bonded replied, snout moving rapidly over a series of containers.

Raev frowned. They would just have to keep searching. "Go give that flour a sniff, but be careful. We're here to find any traces of poison, not make a mess." She picked up another basket, this one containing fruit, and began examining them one by one while Rask went to examine the flour with Veryn.

[Wolfkitt]

Lisask didn’t care to be away from his Handler any more than others seemed to care for the same. But His Alisa was sick and he was a helpful Wher. He knew he could help. He perked up as Rask came in with her bonded and shifted a little closer to her. The shooing attempts from the other woman had upset him a little. Didn’t he just say he could help? Did she not understand Whers? But he would politely stop speaking to her as she seemed to wish and nodded to Rask. Yes! Lisask and Rask will sniff. Sniff good, find problem.. He chirped matter of fact as he moved to the other side of Rask, quickly checking out more of the crates to see if he could detect anything.

Lisask was still bothered, but as Veryn leaned in to whisper that she would look with him, he nodded meekly. The slender Wher meant well but he was still very much unaccompanied. Please yes, Lisask is lost without Alisa.. He confided softly just to her. But as the question came up of whether their sniffing had uncovered something, he shook his head too. Not smell wrong. All smell fine.. He shook his head in some frustration as he began to nose through a couple piles of linens double checking them before moving to join Veryn and Rask to sniff the bags flour, moving through them carefully. He knew that a mess, while fun, would not be helpful now! Giving barely a glance to the somewhat blustery Bronzerider, he didn’t find his words the most helpful either, but they did paint a curious picture. Enemies? Lisask fight.

[Dragon]

Veryn smiled softly at Lisask. She completely understood the poor wher's discomfort with being without his handler. She'd love to have Molloth with her all the time like he wanted, but he just didn't fit in most areas of the Weyr anymore. The passages were just not made for the bulk of an adult dragon.

"Do you like head scritches?" she asked Lisask very quietly, keeping by his side. "Molloth loves it when I scratch his head for him."

Of course, they were working right now. Which meant that while Veryn was willing to scratch Lisask's head, she wasn't going to do so if it was going to interfere with what they were doing.

She frowned slightly as Lisask mentioned that nothing smelled wrong about the flour. It would have been nice if they'd been able to identify the source of the poison ...

"No enemies, Lisask," she soothed. "If we find any, I'm sure Wherleader Raev will tell you so you can fight them." She shot the bronzerider a slightly judgemental look; he really shouldn't go riling up the whers on supposition alone.

But what to inspect next? That was the question, and she felt hopeless to answer it. How were you supposed to find something that was poisoned? She had no idea what or how someone might spread poison around a Weyr.

[Arcane]

"Don't be naive," F'nir said coolly, as the wherhandlers and weyrfolk dismissed his talk of enemies, "Your High Reaches have made many enemies among its peer, from Golre's rule to the most recent theft of Fortian eggs. The weyrs have warred within our lifetime. This is an attack. Refusing to recognize it won't change it."

Seeing nothing in the basket, he stood for a moment to scan the room for any signs of an intruder.

"Who would you blame then, wherhandler?" F'nir asked the so-called-wherleader, not bothering to feign deference. She was a handler. He was a bronzerider. They both knew the natural order of things, "The weyrfolk? The holders? The tunnelsnakes?"

F'nir all but openly scoffed at the thought of any of such creatures threatening dragonriders. Only a dragonrider was a match for another dragonrider. Everyone knew that.

[Fel]

There are no signs of tampering anywhere. If there's poison here, it's not in a form that would be distinguishable from any other supplies. And if there's anything here, it's either been here all along or it was put there by someone intimately familiar with how the supplies are sorted, because most things look untouched—as they should, this early in the fall.

[FirebrandPhlox]

Raev bristled at the bronzerider's patronizing tone. She stormed over to him, unafraid to invade his personal space.

"There is no evidence this is an attack from an enemy. There is no party to blame until we find solid proof of who's responsible. We are still investigating the cause, and until we find it, any statements on the matter are nothing more than rumors." she growled at him. She leaned closer and lowered her voice so only F'nir could hear her. "Keep spouting off your nonsense about attacks and you'll get the whole weyr in a state of panic. We are not at war, and if you continue to say we are, I will be having a conversation with your wingleader about this later."

She glowered at him, giving him a hard stare to show she was serious. For once, she was taller than the person she was trying to keep in line, thankful that F'nir's stature was not nearly as large as his mouth.

Despite continuing to search, they were not finding anything. The whers were not picking up a scent, the supplies seemed undisturbed, aside from what the searchers had gone through. She wanted to be thorough, but this seemed to be a waste of time, especially with so many rooms to look through.

"Rask, Liask," She called to the whers, keeping a careful eye on them. "If you're not picking up anything in here, start checking the other storerooms."

Rask sniff many room! The wher assured before shuffling into the hall, her nose pressed firmly against the ground like a hunting dog.

Still glaring at F'nir, Raev moved to the doorway so she could keep a better eye on Rask, but still see the search party currently in the room. "This room seems to be devoid of tampering. If anyone wishes to keep searching in here, do so thoroughly. We need to start checking other storerooms for signs of disturbance." She called to the searchers. She knew it was the opposite of what she had previously commanded, that they go through every basket with scrutiny, but there was only so much time in a day and too few people searching to make that a feasible ask. She hoped the search party didn't see this as a sign of incompetence in her leadership. Despite everything, she had not anticipated a weyr-wide poison epidemic would happen under her watch and was still struggling to navigate it.